Pictures of our Cute Babies and Updates

Just before Halloween I took Angeli to get her 9 month pictures taken and for both of them to get some Halloween pictures as well. They aren't the cutest pictures ever but they're still pretty darn cute so I thought I would share them with you guys.

Life here is going pretty good. I am busy with my business which is a really welcomed blessing. I have appointments every day this week! Yay, for Timeless Treasures! (my business's name). I had my baby fest this Saturday which went really well. Not only was I able to set appointments but I even was able to network with all the other baby oriented businesses that were there. I am going to do impressions at a baby gym next month on their Santa picture day, and I am going to start advertising with a kiddie kandides. I attracted the most customers by far so the Babies R Us people asked me to come to the next two months baby fests. All of these things are really tender mercies that I am so humbled to have. :0) Tomorrow, I am going to Tahoe to do my millions of impressions. I am a bit nervous about it. I am sure it will all go well but it will just be an all day job and I worry my kids will end up a bit neglected. :0( I hate when I have to take on a "watch fifty movies" parenting style.

Stew has his first test since "hell month" on Thursday. We are trying to readjust to having him gone a bit more as the tests are going to start up again. I think as of right now he has "A"'s in all of his nine classes. We are so happy he is not only doing really well but that he is really liking it. He has been a major help to me with my business too and at times I would be doing all nighters if it weren't for his willingness to set down his books despite his deadlines and help me glaze. I think he's even getting better at glazing then me! He is a stud.

And my latest grip/emotional struggle has been feeling a little like a dork. Well its more like I feel like a major dork. :0) Which is compounded by me feeling guilty about feeling like a dork and wishing I was above such things. It is so easy to look at all the things other people are doing, wearing and accomplishing and feel that somehow because they are so good at it that I am no good. It all started when I went to the mall to pick up the kids pictures. Before this day I was on cloud nine. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. I was humbled at how spoiled I was by my tremendous blessings from Heavenly Father and my generous family members. But this day I had a little time to kill and I was by myself so I thought I would take this rare opportunity to window shop. This was a dumb idea being that I am a poor med-student's wife. As I window and people watched I realized how terribly out of fashion I was and I started to actually feel very bitter at all the people I saw with all their new purchases. I admittedly knew this was very lame but it was non-the- less how I felt. Since then I really struggled to shake it. I just kept seeing all these people with all their "cool" things. And it's not the things themselves that made me jealous but rather what they equated to. I hated that Stew couldn't go out to eat with his med buddies and then felt a little left out, I hated that my kids have a quarter of the toys that their friends have and thus are not as good at playing whatever game it is they are playing, I hated that we cant go on tons of fun family outings, like skiing and such. I hated that when we are invited to do things we have to say no because we don't have the money to go along. I hated that my kids cant go to swimming classes like their buddies. I hated moments like Stew trying to explain that he cant go to the driving range to his friends because we don't have the four dollars it costs and that we have to console ourselves with the idea that we'll be so grateful someday that we saved every penny we could. I feared that these things not only made me a dork but what was even more terrible was that not having these things made me a bad mom and wife in some respect because I couldn't give them all the things I wanted to. I was afraid that people will think my kids aren't smart and good at sports because I haven't given them the same opportunities to develop their talents as other parents. Or that my husband wont be good at golf and feel bad about it only because we didn't ever have the money for him to play. I felt like people will think we are boring dorky people and not realize we are just counting our pennies.

My one real consolation has been thinking about my sister-in-law Kristine. She is perhaps the most Christ like person I know. She has spent her entire life caring about better things then if she looks dorky, or if she has cute clothes or whatever. Every minute of her day is in an effort to help those around her. This has held true when they were dirt poor or well off. I really want to be like her and have realized how far I have to go to achieve that. When I hear her stories of their poor law school days I am very encouraged because I realize that if I want to be like her then I should be excited for this opportunity to practice and truly learn to be happy despite how dorky I might look to others. When I take the time to realize this I then am truly grateful I can take the road less traveled (or at lest a less glamorous one) and stop worrying about my shirt that Bridger has stained and is fraying at the edge, and start to think more about how blessed I am and how I can lift others up instead of pulling myself down. So now when I start to complain Stew has started to say "think of Kristine". With that I feel very humble and realize how vain and petty I am being. I can then hope that I can teach my kids to not worry about what clothes they are wearing or if they are varsity at every sport but rather how they are making the world a better place. Thus, my advise to myself is that I will just have to fully embrace dorkyness and move on to better more important worries. And until I achieve "Kristine status" I will just have to avoid malls, fashion magazines, and very trendy cute people like the plague! :0)

Well, that is my latest issue and on a more upbeat note here are my biggest and best miracles... my beautiful babies :0) .

Very cute and putting her in the wagon thing kept her from crawling all over the place

So she isn't even looking directly at the camera but still I liked it and I wanted one with her looking up while she was in the wagon thing so there it is! :0)

She is a cute baby chick!

I love her expression in this one, she's being a very coy baby chick :0)

And then my favorite puppy dog of all time, Bridger! So cute!

PS I only scanned the pictures to put them on the blog and wont be printing them off so I wont be breaking too many copyright laws. :0)